CHOW-YUN-FAT.de

Chow Yun-Fat plays the role of Fay, a vagrant, who dreams of leaving Hong Kong for America. His attempt to travel as a stowaway onboard a ship comes to nothing, and he is forced moreover to remain in Hong Kong. He meets Keung (Alex Man) at his job in a rice warehouse and the two of them become friends. This is how he also gets to know Nam (Cecilia Yip) who grew up with Keung. Keung is evidently in love with her and would gladly marry her, but her father, the boss of the rice warehouse will not allow it. Nam’s father has the rice deliveries stopped and fires all the workers in the warehouse without paying them. After Fay and Keung steal two sacks of rice out of spite, they get into trouble with the police. Together with Nam, they do not think much of their homeland and decide to leave Hong Kong together- the very next morning. An extremely bad date to choose, as on this day of all days the Japanese come to Hong Kong and invade it…

Teqs Review:

Rating:  

It is the story of a friendship, with the backdrop of the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong.

Fay (Chow Yun-Fat) wants to leave Hong for America. His attempt to travel on a ship as a stowaway goes wrong.He is consequently forced to stay in Hong Kong. He gets to know Keung (Alex Man ) at his work in a rice warehouse. The two of them strike up a friendship. He also gets acquainted with Keung’s pretty girlfriend, Nam (Cecilia Yip).
In the warehouse there is unrest amongst the workers when the deliveries are stopped and all the workers are fired without pay. Fay and Keung make off with two sacks of rice amidst the chaos. They are chased by the police but are able to shake them off.

Keung would very much like to marry his girlfriend Nam, but her father is against the idea. Since the three of them now also have problems with the police, they decide to go ahead with Fay’s plan to disappear out of Hong Kong. The plan is supposed to be carried out the next morning. But it turned out differently. Precisely on this day, the Japanese attacked Hong Kong. The three friends got as far as the boat, but unfortunately only Fay managed to get on board. Nam and Keung remained behind. Although Fay would rather slip away out of Hong Kong, he decided to swim back to land again. His friends were still more important to him.

The three friends must now come to terms with the new situation. Keung is arrested by the police and Fay has to look after Nam. He falls in love with her.
To the horror of Nam and Keung, Fay offers his services to the Japanese. The two of them do not realise that Fay is doing it for them, so that he can help them more. Keung and Nam try to struggle along and survive. Meanwhile Fay is providing other people with papers to protect them from the Japanese.
One day Keung falls into the hands of the temporarily-formed militia. Nam tells Fay what has happened. Fay has to injure his friend badly in order to be able to save him. In so doing he kills the militia boss. When on top of this he clashes with a Japanese officer, whom Fay kills, they have to get out of Hong Kong as quickly as possible. Now Fay’s connections pay off. They disappear in the night by boat out of Hong Kong. They have almost made it when they are stopped by an armed Japanese boat. Fay resorts to extreme measures to save his friends...

Resume:
Chow Yun-Fat in a role here, where he is for once not firing all guns. He plays the role of Fay in his usual supreme way. The two other main characters are played most engagingly by Alex Man and Cecilia Yip. This film casts a real spell on you, you can sink really well into these characters and tremble along with them. I can recommend this film highly. It is a must for all those who want to see Chow play a more dramatic role.

Translation by Mew

DVD
Production: Fortune Star
Regionalcode: RC 3
Format: NTSC
Running time: 100 min
Language: Cantonese/Mandarin
Subtitles: English